Impact of COVID-19 on Staff Mental Health and Well-Being in SMEs:Strategies and Interventions to Support Workforce and Boost Productivity in the UK

COVID-19大流行导致全球各国政府采取了前所未有的封锁和经济措施来应对疾病的传播，并为工人和企业提供支持。新冠肺炎疫情对中小企业员工的心理健康和福祉构成了真正的威胁，雇主需要制定严肃的计划，为英国的员工（1600万人）提供支持。在这方面的证据有限，需要从多学科的角度研究最佳战略、干预措施和政策，为中小企业（99.9%的英国企业）提供有关如何支持员工和提高生产力的信息。由于与工作有关的压力、抑郁和焦虑，英国损失了1280万个工作日（2018-19年，大流行前）（300亿英镑）。据估计，560万工人面临失业的风险，由于大流行，今年春天英国经济将萎缩35%。这次经济危机预计会增加中小企业员工的MH问题，并显著影响：员工的生产力，如需要履行多种角色，获得新技能，在不同的环境下工作，支持有限，以及避免瓶颈的压力；商业生产力-预计将满足更高的需求，并应对供应的不确定性，使供应链具有弹性，提高英国的生产力，减少劳动力。该项目的主要目标是：(1)通过对英国1200名中小企业员工的多阶段调查，开发一个概念模型，有助于分析中小企业员工面临的MH问题、导致这些问题的因素和各种工作维度之间的关系，以及大流行期间对员工和企业生产力的影响；(2)在考虑中小企业需求和制约因素的情况下，制定包括战略、做法和干预措施在内的2019冠状病毒病员工福利框架，并对20家中小企业进行为期6个月的纵向研究，以评估其在疫情期间和之后不同工作环境中提高中小企业劳动力复原力和生产力的有效性和影响；(3)开发COVID-19 MH应用程序，以监测中小企业员工的MH状况，并通过纵向研究进行试点，以展示通过该应用程序收集的数据如何使每个中小企业了解其员工需求，反思他们的福祉，这将有助于定制框架，即客观地实施实践、战略和干预措施，以解决员工MH、福祉和公司生产力相关问题。综上所述：目标1概述了中小企业及其工作人员的需求，同时考虑到当前大流行中的业务和个人限制，使用了一个通过对1200名中小企业员工进行多阶段调查验证的模型；目标2将根据第一个目标，即现有文献和指南，为中小企业制定一个以证据为基础的框架，以支持其工作人员在大流行病期间和之后的健康和福祉，并将由跨学科专家和对选定的中小企业进行定性研究来验证；目标3将实施和试点一款医院应用程序，以监测和可视化医院状况，并检查其有效性，以支持每家中小企业及其员工的需求；最后，对英国15家中小企业的纵向研究将证明MH应用程序在帮助定制框架方面的有效性，考虑到流行病中个别中小企业的动态需求，以及福利框架和心理健康应用程序对中小企业劳动力和业务生产力的影响。

COVID-19 pandemic has led governments globally to respond with unprecedented lock down and economic measures to combat spread of the disease, and support workers and businesses. The pandemic presents a real threat to small and medium sized enterprises' (SMEs') workforce mental health (MH) and well-being, and employers need to pursue serious plans to support their workforce (16 million people) in the UK. There is limited evidence in this regard and research is needed from a multi-disciplinary perspective on best strategies, interventions and policies informing SMEs (99.9% of UK businesses) regarding how to support the staff and enhance their productivity.12.8m working days were lost (2018-19, pre-pandemic) in the UK (£30 billion), due to work-related stress, depression and anxiety. It is estimated that 5.6 million workers are at risk of losing their jobs and that the UK economy will shrink by 35% this spring due to pandemic. This economic meltdown is expected to increase SMEs' staff MH problems and significantly impact: staff productivity, such as need to fulfil multiple roles, acquire new skills, work under different environment with limited support, and pressure to avoid bottlenecks; business productivity - expected to meet higher demands and cope with supply uncertainties to make supply chain resilient and boost UK productivity, with the reduced workforce. The main objectives of this project are to: (1) Develop a conceptual model that will facilitate analysing the relationship between MH issues faced by SMEs' staff, factors and various job dimensions contributing to these issues, and its impact on both the staff and business productivity during the pandemic, through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs' employees in the UK;(2) Develop a COVID-19 employee well-being framework comprising of strategies, practices and interventions, considering SMEs' needs and constraints, and conduct a longitudinal study for six months with twenty SMEs to evaluate its effectiveness and impact towards increasing the resilience and productivity of SMEs' workforce in varying work contexts during and after the pandemic;(3) Develop a COVID-19 MH application to monitor the MH conditions of SMEs' workforce and pilot it with the longitudinal study, to show how the data collected through the app will enable each individual SME to understand its staff needs, introspect their well-being, that will facilitate customizing the framework, i.e. objectively putting in place practices, strategies and interventions to address employee MH, well-being and firm's productivity related issues. To summarize: Objective 1 outlines the SMEs' and their staff needs, taking into account business and individual constraints in the current pandemic demonstrated using a model validated through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs employees; Objective 2 will develop a evidence-based framework for SMEs based on the first objective, existing literature and guidance, to support their staffs' MH and well-being during and after the pandemic, which will be validated by interdisciplinary experts and qualitative studies with selected SMEs; Objective 3 will implement and pilot a MH app to monitor and visualize MH condition and examine its effectiveness to support the needs of each SME and their staff; and finally a longitudinal study with 15 SMEs in the UK will demonstrate the effectiveness of MH app to help customize the framework considering the dynamic needs of individual SMEs in pandemic, and impact of wellbeing framework and mental health app on SMEs' workforce and business productivity.